3. The War Department

Evan Vucci, Associated Press

The U.S. War Department ceased to exist in the late 1940s and was absorbed into a new agency called the Defense Department. Since then, not a single American military engagement has begun with a formal declaration of war. More than 100,000 Americans have died in warfare since the War Department disappeared, many of them in a "police action" in Korea and a "conflict" in Vietnam. Most recently, President Barack Obama dumped the George W. Bush-era phrase "global war on terror" in favor of the more bureaucratic and less warlike "overseas contingency operations."

The U.S. War Department ceased to exist in the late 1940s and was absorbed into a new agency called the Defense Department. Since then, not a single American military engagement has begun with a formal declaration of war. More than 100,000 Americans have died in warfare since the War Department disappeared, many of them in a "police action" in Korea and a "conflict" in Vietnam. Most recently, President Barack Obama dumped the George W. Bush-era phrase "global war on terror" in favor of the more bureaucratic and less warlike "overseas contingency operations." (Evan Vucci, Associated Press)

The U.S. War Department ceased to exist in the late 1940s and was absorbed into a new agency called the Defense Department. Since then, not a single American military engagement has begun with a formal declaration of war. More than 100,000 Americans have died in warfare since the War Department disappeared, many of them in a "police action" in Korea and a "conflict" in Vietnam. Most recently, President Barack Obama dumped the George W. Bush-era phrase "global war on terror" in favor of the more bureaucratic and less warlike "overseas contingency operations."